I discuss some significant current affairs and some prominent ethical dilemmas (namely the conflict in the Middle East) and some astrological influences that are at play.
Astrological dates mentioned herein are calculated using the Eastern Daylight time zone.
This episode was recorded on November 18, 2023. It was published on November 19, 2023 at 5:51pm EDT.
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Episode transcript:
Greetings all, welcome to Aquarian Diary. I’m your host, John Irving.
It is November 19th, 2023. The bulk of this was recorded on November 18th.
As I often do, I will be displaying some graphics or articles on the screen that will only be visible in the video version of this episode, in case that matters to you.
It’s been a while since I’ve recorded anything, and my absence may seem a little odd. I’ve certainly thought a lot about recording at various times.
But this period has been very weird and peculiar. It started with an eclipse in October that was right on one of my key points in my astrology chart. This is a life-altering event.
On top of that, my ruling planet Jupiter has been retrograde, and Saturn has been squaring my sun. Not only that, but it retrograded and then basically stationed direct right as it was squaring my sun, which really extended that aspect in terms of time. One of the things about a transit like this with Saturn is that your physical energy and vitality can be quite low, and that’s probably coming through in my presentation right now. Another reason to lay low.
I’ll probably do an episode on that Saturn aspect once it’s complete, because I have a lot of observations that may help other people who are grappling with that transit. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to what has been coming up, both internally and externally, during this time. And I have a lot to say about that, which, like I said, I’ll get to at a later date. I don’t like to talk about things too much when I’m in the midst of it, because, based on my experience, you need to be able to see it in hindsight to fully appreciate it, or articulate it.
Of course, there’s an awful lot going on in the world these days, much of which I would like to comment on.
I still have been doing an awful lot of reading, and I listen to podcasts from around the world, so I have a lot of opinions about things, quite strong ones actually. But I still have this sense, which I have articulated here before, that this is kind of a time to lay low and not stick your head above the trenches too much.
I think as is clear, we can see that there’s a lot of people who have been getting into a lot of trouble lately by expressing their opinions in ways which might have been avoided if they had taken a little bit of time to think about what they were saying.
Also, a lot of what is occurring is exactly what I was describing in the episode that I did titled Pluto at 29 degrees of Capricorn, a karmic reckoning. We are seeing things very clearly. Much of it is not pleasant, but that’s not unexpected.
It’s just that world events are forcing people into positions, and they can be very stark and dramatic. Whether we agree with them or not.
So it’s like the light is shining on everyone and everything, and it is causing people to question their beliefs and their assumptions and their allegiances. And to me, from that perspective, it’s a good thing because we’re seeing things as they are. It’s like we’re cutting through the fog.
Like I said, that may not be pleasant, and we may not like it, but at least we are seeing the truth about who people are, where they stand, what their intentions are, and so forth.
There’s a lot of criticism about people in various camps right now, especially about what’s happening in the Middle East. And young people in particular are taking a lot of heat for their perspectives.
I am in no way advocating disinformation, conspiracy theories, propaganda, or such. If you’ve listened to me before, you know how much I disdain that.
However, I do think that it is good that people are strongly expressing their views, because that is what we need. Strong chills here. That is what we need for society and democracy to function properly. We need people to be engaged and vocal.
And so I think the fact that young people are taking stands, even if they’re not necessarily fully informed or accurately informed, is a good thing. Yay! I’ve been for years saying that the key to our future lies in getting young people engaged. I think that’s fantastic.
So I had a bit of time where it’s quiet here, relatively, and there’s not a lot of stuff I can do because we’re in the midst of a big rainstorm here today. And I was thinking, how do I get on and talk about what I want to talk about or say what I need to say, which is a lot of things that have been on my mind lately, without alienating a lot of people or becoming a target myself.
And as I was contemplating this, something that happened in my youth came to my mind, a memory. And as I reflected on this, I realized that that is perfect. So I don’t know where this came from. It’s not something I think about very often, but it was a striking experience in my younger years.
And it goes like this:
Back in 1980, I was still a teenager. My very first job.
I used to do all kinds of things to make money when I was a teenager, like everything from painting people’s houses to doing yard maintenance to whatever, you know, short term things. But this was my first legitimate job with a paycheck and so on.
And I was an usher at a movie theater, briefly, as it would turn out. Remember, this is 1980, so it’s well before the days of the internet.
And the movie at this time was The Elephant Man. Fantastic movie, if you’ve never seen it. It’s slow and it’s black and white, but it was groundbreaking at the time.
So the movie was playing and I was in the lobby sweeping up popcorn from the floor or whatever in my really ill-fitting, cheap suit that they gave me, which was really ugly. This is an absolutely true story. And a couple comes into the lobby. They’re very upset.
They explain that there’s been a car accident, that there’s someone in the theater that they need to get ahold of because they need to go to the hospital to approve an emergency surgery on someone who has been severely injured in this accident.
And I’m a teenager, remember, at this time. And my first reaction was like, holy shit.
So I go to the manager and I say, we need to stop the movie and make an announcement. There’s a serious life-threatening situation. And I explained to him what’s going on.
And he refuses to do this. He says, we can’t interrupt the movie. They’ll have to wait.
And I was dumbfounded.
I didn’t know what to do, but I thought about it very quickly. And I’m like, someone could die if we don’t do this. This is crazy. You’re putting one screening of this movie ahead of this life-threatening situation.
And I’m sure everybody in the audience will understand why we’re doing this if we do it. So I go back to the manager and I say, we have to do something about this. Then the people were very upset and understandably so.
So he still refuses to do it.
And I look at the people and I think to myself, oh my God, what do I do?
So right there on the spot, I made a decision.
I walked into the theater. It was dark. I go in front of the screen and the movie’s still playing.
And I say very loudly, there’s an emergency.
Would so-and-so please come to the lobby if you’re here?
Please everyone pay attention.
If so-and-so is here, please come to the lobby. It’s urgent.
And then I go back to the lobby.
I take off my jacket. I hang it up and I walk out of the theater and I never go back.
That was my first job.
I was put in this incredibly important ethical and moral dilemma where I had to make a really snap decision.
And I basically walked away from my first job because I had to do the right thing.
So the moral of this story is that sometimes we have to make sacrifices to do the right thing.
And when situations are very clear cut and we weigh the pros and the cons, in that scenario, yes, that whole audience was inconvenienced by my interruption and some of them might have even been upset.
And I lost my job by defying the manager, but I had to do the right thing.
And so in this situation that’s occurring in the world right now, there is no justification for harming or endangering the lives of innocent civilians. Every possible measure and step should be taken to avoid doing that. Period.
Yes, we have the right to protect ourselves, but we do not have the right to harm innocent bystanders.
If something really terrible happened in the United States and the police had to go after an individual or even a group of individuals to bring them to justice, and in the course of doing that, they killed many innocent people to get their hands on a few guilty ones, the moral outrage, which would be entirely justified, would be of epic proportions.
Even if somebody has done something heinous, you cannot harm tens, hundreds, thousands of innocent people in seeking justice, because that is not justice. You are creating more injustice by doing that. And there is karma associated with that. It’s a very fine line.
Sometimes in conflicts innocent people get harmed. That happens. But every possible measure to avoid that occurring has to be taken.
It is simply not ethical to intentionally harm innocent people or bystanders. It’s black and white. It’s really simple. I challenge anyone to question that fundamental premise.
For example, how can a child or an infant be guilty of heinous crimes?
So, people who are calling for a ceasefire or a humanitarian pause are justified. It doesn’t mean that the guilty cannot be found and prosecuted or rooted out. It’s a question of how you do it.
And there is no moral justification for engaging in activity that harms thousands of innocent men, women, and children, that is disproportionate to the crimes that instigated the conflict in the first place. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the criminals.
That’s why we have very complex legal and judicial systems. We go to great lengths to protect the innocent and to ensure that the guilty are actually guilty before they are charged.
It’s not a perfect system, but just think about the legal system, for example, in the United States, how complex it is. How many hoops you have to go through.
And we really go out of our way to make sure that justice is applied fairly accurately and reasonably, the thought of, for example, executing somebody who is innocent is horrific, and everyone agrees that we want to avoid that.
Now, I know a bit about the history here, and I know that there are grievances on all sides, and I’m not going to get into the history of it because that is a Pandora’s box. That’s not my point.
My point is that morally and ethically we have to hold ourselves to the highest possible standards, period.
One of the things I’ve been witnessing is that there’s a tremendous amount of tribalism at play. And to me, tribalism is very low consciousness. It is old paradigm.
There really is only one tribe. There isn’t many. We have different cultures and religious groups and so forth. Fair enough. That’s what makes life on earth interesting.
But fundamentally, we are all human beings, and we all have the same rights and privileges. It doesn’t matter about our ethnicity, culture, religion, country of origin, and so forth. Those are completely secondary to that.
So we should never unequivocally support any group, organization, or cause if what they’re doing is wrong.
And that is the moral of my story about the theater, is that what the manager was asking me to do was unethical and immoral, and I had to make a sacrifice to put my foot down and make a decision on the spot, without a lot of time to think about it, to do the right thing.
It’s black and white when you simplify it to its basic moral dilemma, as far as I’m concerned.
I also want to add that from my perspective, there is a fair amount of bias in politics and in the media, where we’re often not really hearing a lot of balance.
It seems to me that more people are speaking out about the disproportionate response and the consequences of that, but often you will also hear that a lot of people who express those kinds of concerns pay significant prices for doing so.
It is entirely legitimate to criticize military action that appears to be inappropriate. That is completely legitimate.
And I often see a lot of cases where, for example, criticism is conflated with anti-semitism, and they’re not necessarily the same thing.
I’m not talking about supporting the group that initiated the attack on October 7th.
But people being censured or losing their jobs, or being persecuted or blocked from advocating for a humanitarian pause or a ceasefire, is completely unconscionable if you actually think about it.
These are peace protesters. Not all of them, but the majority of them.
This is not the same situation as Ukraine, where one country tried to illegally steal another country. This is a totally different situation.
I will put in the description several links that describe how aides and people who work on foreign policy are critical of the Biden administration for not promoting a ceasefire.
And the reason I’m sharing that is because it validates that there are reasonable people within the administration itself who are dissenting voices, who are speaking out about this.
These are well-informed, intelligent people who are questioning these policies and the unquestioning support for what is occurring now. That simply validates my point or my perspective. The people who are questioning this are not just fringe, far-left people. These are advisors to the current administration. These are trusted advisors.
So yes, we should be debating this and its merits, or lack thereof, and that is completely 100% legitimate, and we should always do that. Whenever there’s war or conflict, we need a very balanced approach and perspective.
And one of the things that really concerns me about this the most is that it seems to me that, like I said, there is a bias, and that people who are questioning what’s happening are being targeted and even attacked. Just because you don’t support the tactics that are currently being employed doesn’t mean you’re anti-semitic.
I really encourage people, especially Americans, to read the news from other countries. Canada, the UK, Europe, Germany, Australia, wherever.
I remember very vividly during the Gulf War, I was traveling in Europe, and I would watch CNN at night just to catch up on what was happening. And I was shocked, it was jaw-dropping, how different the European CNN broadcasts were compared to what was broadcast in the United States.
It may be different now, but back then, they had their own reporters and hosts who were based in Europe. It was really something to behold.
I was so struck by this that I couldn’t stop talking about it. It’s like two different universes from the same network.
So American news has a particular style and presentation that is very different from what you get, for example, in Europe. Places like The Guardian, which is one of the top news publications in the world by traffic, has a very different style and presentation than, say, The Washington Post or The New York Times.
So again, I just really encourage people to check out different perspectives to make sure that you’re not stuck in an information bubble.
I also want to take this opportunity to express one more point of concern. Clearly, there is an awful lot of darkness being expressed in the world right now. A lot of us, I think, feel like we are being yanked back into some old paradigm that is very ugly in many ways. And this can be quite disturbing.
I myself have not read many of the details about what’s happening on the ground in the Middle East since October 7th. I follow it at a high level, but I find it very difficult to focus on the trauma that is being experienced on the ground. It’s very dark.
And there are many other things going on politically and environmentally that are also very disconcerting.
I’m a realist when it comes to what’s happening in the world. And I have been very critical of things like conspiracy theories, the rise of authoritarianism and populism, the move by those on the right into increasingly extreme positions, Christian nationalism, etc.
Now, clearly, there are people who disagree with my perspective, and I don’t typically shy away from expressing my honest opinion about these kinds of things.
One of the tactics that is commonly employed by people who are offended by those kinds of statements or observations is to use ad hominem attacks.
They will say, for example, that you are being dark or excessively negative, even if you’re simply stating facts. And people who use ad hominems do so because they can’t refute your statements with facts or evidence or logic, so they attack the person or their character. It is not a tactic that I respect.
But as truth-tellers, we need to be aware that there are people who are going to be offended by what we state or observe or point out, and that these people will try and undermine us.
To me, it is quite self-evident when this is occurring, and I assume that most reasonable people are capable of identifying when that’s happening. But that may not always be the case, and we need to be vigilant to not allow such attacks to undermine us or cause us to shut up, because that is exactly what the intent is.
The intent is for us to go away, stop speaking our truth, to shut us down, so that the people we are offending can just carry on with whatever it is they’re doing, unchallenged.
Because of everything that’s happening in the world right now, a lot of us can feel like we’re under attack, like our beliefs, our perspectives, our worldviews are being questioned and we’re under attack, and we may even feel hopeless at times.
But I’m urging you to not do that, to maintain your strength, to know yourself, and not allow what’s happening to beat you down, because that is exactly what the dark side wants to happen.
There is a push and a pull going on right now between an old paradigm and a new paradigm, and the new paradigm I have described a lot on my channel, especially in my episodes about Pluto transiting Aquarius, and Pluto will re-enter Aquarius again on January 20th of next year. That’s only about two months from now.
So between now and then, Pluto is going to be hitting 29 degrees of Capricorn. I’ll put the dates on the screen. And this is one of the final battles between these two paradigms.
The energy should shift back more into where we would like it to be probably come January 20th of 2024, the last time Pluto shifted into Aquarius, I felt the shift almost immediately.
So hang in there, and don’t let all of the screams and the agonies of the death throes of this old paradigm cause you to question your core beliefs, values, or positions.
It really is kind of like a spiritual battle that’s going on. The truth will always win in the end, it just may take a bit of time.
I’m not suggesting that on January 20th everything is going to suddenly be resolved, but the tide will have turned, and the momentum will again start moving towards this more egalitarian future that is our destiny.
Pluto will dip back into Capricorn one more time next year, and that is between September 1st and November 19th of 2024. That should be especially interesting because it’s just going to retrograde into 29 degrees of Capricorn and then station direct at 29 degrees just for that 6 or 7 week period. That should be absolutely fascinating to witness.
A quick update on some near-term transits.
I posted on my community tab last night about Mars and the Sun being conjunct most of this week all the way through next weekend really. So watch your temper and think twice before you speak anything contentious or challenging, and watch out for that coming at you the other way, because people can be acting quite aggressively right now without thinking about what they’re saying, and then they may end up regretting it later. Also watch out for rash and impulsive behavior that you may also regret later. You can use this energy to get out and do some physical stuff, like whether it’s chores or exercise, it’s really good for that.
The Sun and Mars are currently in Scorpio. Scorpio is a very intense sign, so that adds to what I’ve been describing.
For example, what’s happening with Elon Musk right now is a classic example of that. Just look at how much his tweet cost him and X, formerly Twitter.
Neptune goes direct on December 6th in Pisces.
Jupiter goes direct on December 30th.
Saturn went direct on November 4th. That’s a good thing.
And the effect of the eclipses back in October are still playing out, as we can clearly see.
Jupiter is continuing its transit of Taurus until May 25th of 2024. I mention this because in terms of the incredible inflation that we’ve been experiencing, and the cost of living crisis that is being felt around the world, things like greedflation and price gouging, financially it’s been crazy lately. The stock market is still doing surprisingly well.
When Jupiter leaves Taurus after May 25th, I believe we should see things start to settle down in those regards. In terms of everything being insanely expensive, paying more for smaller items, reduced packaging size, increased prices, insidious junk fees, corporate profiteering, naked greed, the housing market going berserk, rent prices, all that stuff. Inflationary.
Jupiter is very expansive, and in the money sign of Taurus it tends to exaggerate everything. Taurus also governs things like property and real estate, of course. So like I said, after May 25th, I expect that we should see things start to simmer or calm down a bit in those regards. That will be welcome.
I apologize for my absence, but I’ve really just been following my guidance on that, and I think I’m doing the right thing. I’ve just been keeping busy doing a lot of stuff I’ve been putting off, and that’s been going well. Laying low. Until now.
After this Saturn-square-my-sun transit is over, I’ll probably be back and getting into some other interesting things that have been on my mind.
So I think I’ll just leave it there for now.
Again, for more detail, check the episode description for other episodes or articles that are related or that I mentioned.
And if you’re interested in a reading with me, I’ll put a link to that as well. I have a 20% off Black Friday special on currently. A natal or transit reading makes a great gift, by the way. It’s something people won’t forget.
Many sincere thanks to everyone who supports me, especially my YouTube members. Thank you very much.
Take care, all the best, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Bye for now.
End transcript.
Other episodes referenced herein:
Pluto at 29° Capricorn – A Karmic Reckoning
Pluto in Aquarius – Dawn of Global Consciousness
Jupiter transit Taurus: 2023-2024
Drama and Detachment During This Intensely Karmic Cycle
Articles and resources referenced or displayed in this episode:
The Elephant Man (movie, 1980)
State Department employees send Blinken ‘dissent’ cables over Gaza policy
More Than 500 U.S. Officials Sign Letter Protesting Biden’s Israel Policy
Democratic Aides in Congress Break With Their Bosses on Israel-Hamas War
“Let It Go to Voicemail”: Democrats Reportedly Ignoring Calls for Cease-Fire
Voters Agree the U.S. Should Call for a Ceasefire and De-Escalation of Violence in Gaza to Prevent Civilian Deaths
Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024
#Astrology #War #Peace
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